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Turns out teenage pregnancy rate is lower now than it was in the 50s. The difference was, back then, the father could get a real paying job and we didn't have to pick up welfare costs. Blame corporations for that one.

Jan Cegielski would be a dream-come-true for an ethics professor to have in his or her class. Commentary on what she has written would provide the foundation for hours of enlightening discussion.

She writes: “I want sadistic, cold-hearted criminals to pay for their crimes. If that means being put to death, so be it. We all have choices. Mine are to follow laws created to make us live as human beings.”

But one might ask: “What does she mean by a ‘criminal’?” Only one who has been convicted of a criminal offense?

And when she says, “[My choices] are to follow laws created to make us live as human beings,” does she mean “criminal laws only”? And does she mean ALL criminal laws? And does she allow for acts of “civil disobedience” – the willful violation of laws that are deemed “unjust,” so as to begin to transform a society thought to have gone morally astray?

Responses by J.S. Mill and Socrates to these questions are wonderfully thought-provoking. Including responses that might be evoked from the likes of us – even us sillies -- as I have written, by a provocateur extraordinaire like Ms. Cegielski.

"I want sadistic, cold-hearted criminals to pay for their crimes. If that means being put to death, so be it. We all have choices. Mine are to follow laws created to make us live as human beings."

We as a country need to stop sanctioning the killing of criminals. There have been too many mistakes made in the criminal justice system to have the enough belief that the system is working to take a life. Capital punishment is just one more failed government program that should be scrapped.

GJ2016 - ""We as a country need to stop sanctioning the killing of criminals.""

It's interesting that you and some of the other pro-abortion crowd think that the country should stop sanctioning the killing of criminals, but yet you have no problem with the country sanctioning the killing of innocent babies whose only crime is that they're alive. How do you justify that type of conflicting viewpoint in your heart?

And by the way, I'm consistent in my views in that I don't believe in the killing of criminals or little children.

"It's interesting that you and some of the other pro-abortion crowd think that the country should stop sanctioning the killing of criminals, but yet you have no problem with the country sanctioning the killing of innocent babies whose only crime is that they're alive. How do you justify that type of conflicting viewpoint in your heart?"

the problem is guilt doesnt need to be proven absolutely, just beyond a reasonable doubt. the wrong person does get convicted from time to time. would Jan hold the same opinion if she was wrongly convicted awaiting sentence?

There have been too many cases of people wrongly convicted, later exonerated. With more technical crime solving tools available, we now have found more innocent people were wrongly convicted. In my opinion, the measure of a just and advanced society founded on the principals of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" does not tolerate "mistakes" like this, even one.